Higher levels of education offer benefits, both intangible and economic, for students and the societies in which they live. Personal benefits can include a feeling of fulfillment, social and economic mobility, and increased quality of life. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, over an adult's working life, high school graduates earn an average of $1.2 million; associate's degree holders earn about $1.6 million; and bachelor's degree holders earn about $2.1 million. On a larger scale, countries with high enrollment and graduation rates have experienced faster economic growth than countries without.
The future of education will be shaped by the integration of mobile computing devices into learning environments. Children's access to mobile computing devices is growing rapidly as is children's familiarity with such devices and predilection for using them. One indicator of the trend toward mobile computing is found in the mobile smartphone arena. The International Telecommunication Union estimates that there are currently 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide. Moreover, The Nielsen Company reports that multipurpose smartphones that allow users to access the World Wide Web as well as execute mobile applications constitute 25% of the U.S. mobile phone market. Within a year, Nielsen predicts use of such smartphones to overtake other mobile phones.